... which to be honest I regard as anything after book 4 which is a bit silly of me! I've never held them in as high regard as the earlier books, they are pretty damned fine and I do really like them, but for some reason I always think of it being a slow decline in quality..

I do like them, they are great, just not as good. .. just I have a feeling I might be wrong as you suggest!

Oh and I'm not sure that Book 4 is a high water mark (I think that might be book 3 for me?) but those first 4 books are just so special.

Nemesis is definitely one of my all time favourite thrills. It vies with Slaine for 3rd place probably.

I like to think pretty much nothing in the Prog can touch books 1,3 and 4. (Apart from possibly Warriors Dawn, series 1 of ABC Warriors and Zenith Book 1).

I remember feeling a sense of loss at the end of Book 4. I really thought that would be it, but then they found a way to bring Torquemada back. And wasn't it great. Book 5, treads water a bit, relatively, but it all ramps up in Book 6. The scenes at the end of the world are just superb, especially the way Torquemada gets the terminators on his side again. I just love how Bryan Talbot got expressions out of Torquemada's mask.

Possibly unfairly I liked it less after that. I think it was a combination of the different settings and different artists. Before that it had a consistent feel, now the style seemed to change radically. I wasn't a big Hickleton fan, but can absolutely see his art has merit. It then seemed a bit of a hotch-potch after that. Which I am sure is extremely unfair on the likes of David Roach. And I freely admit that in Book 10 I had yet to realise how brilliant Henry Flint was - it just seemed like some-one doing a Kev O'Neill impression.

(Prog 534) It was a year ago today that I started reading 2000 AD. The last couple of weeks have been a bit busy so I haven't gone as far as I'd hoped to, but I'm very happy to have passed the 500/10 year milestone. It's been really fun and fascinating to watch the characters and comic itself develop, and right now things are only getting better. I'm hoping to at least match the number of Progs read over the next 12 months, and can't wait to find out what the next 10 years of 2000 AD hold!

You'll be delighted to learn that your prediction about the Gronk may be truer than you ever suspected.

On the Nemesis debate, for my money Book VII is the last truly great book; book VIII is fine but it's a prequel story and since what came after is either utterly incomprehensible (Book IX) or just feels like treading water (everything up to and including Book X), it sort of slips through the cracks of must-read Nemesis.

If you're reading all this stuff for the first time, Feathers, I truly do envy you! How are you enjoying Bad Company? (books 2 and 3 to come before Prog 600 if you haven't seen them yet!)

You'll be delighted to learn that your prediction about the Gronk may be truer than you ever suspected.

On the Nemesis debate, for my money Book VII is the last truly great book; book VIII is fine but it's a prequel story and since what came after is either utterly incomprehensible (Book IX) or just feels like treading water (everything up to and including Book X), it sort of slips through the cracks of must-read Nemesis.

If you're reading all this stuff for the first time, Feathers, I truly do envy you! How are you enjoying Bad Company? (books 2 and 3 to come before Prog 600 if you haven't seen them yet!)

Hi Alex, Bad Company was ok! I felt like it ended a bit suddenly, and didn't suggest that there would necessarily be a follow on series. The future war setting is of course hugely familiar by this point, and the Krool are very generic and undefined. The hopelessness of the situation is interesting, it seems they're not just fighting a war they can't win, but one where winning wouldn't matter because of other political manoeuvring in the background. I like the diary format, and the second draft of new recruits was good at showing the change in perspective of the narrator. I guess all in all it was less of a re-tread of old ground than I was expecting, so hopefully if there's more might grow into something better still

More than can be said of Mean Team, which is now a poor re-run of Meltdown Man/Return to Armageddon and easily the worst current feature. Dredd's democracy protest storyline was beyond brilliant. It's getting a lot chillier there. Torquemada the God was brief but stayed good, this last prog had an unusual photo-story in it, and I'm looking forward to the Two Torquemada's starting properly soon!

I wasn't a big Hickleton fan, but can absolutely see his art has merit. It then seemed a bit of a hotch-potch after that. Which I am sure is extremely unfair on the likes of David Roach.

I've finished Prog 563 now. Hickleton wasn't to my taste in places either - Nemesis himself never looked right with his elongated neck, and Purity seemed to be replaced by John Waters star Divine. I liked a lot of the other incidental stuff, and the general style, but the basics didn't seem to be solid enough. David Roach in Purity's story feels like a return to more dependable artwork. Similarly in ABC Warriors, I'm not a fan of Simon Bisley. I find his artwork isn't easy to read. If there's a group of people standing together I have to really look hard to see where one person ends and another begins so it gets to be a bit of a jumble, and often the foreground is floating in a black or white void of no detail. The SMS issues were a relief and re-kindled my enthusiasm, but currently it's a tough strip to love, especially as the original run was so great, and they seem to be stuck in a Nemesis sub-plot that doesn't show any signs of ending...

Bad Company 2 was great, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it. I like it that there's a defined goal now. Oz has been good, especially the two issues with the unhinged robot cook on the ship, but the Judda story within it feels a bit plain, and drawn out. Strontium Dog has been on great form with the Rammy, and a new story with Durham is very welcome. Zenith I found a bit plain. It feels like there was a bit of a rough spot at the end of 1987, but hopefully things have balanced out again for the time being now...

Prog 590 - I really enjoyed Tribal Memories. It seemed to be exactly the right length and pace for the story it was telling, which turns out to be an unusual length for 2000 AD. In contrast, I really liked the ideas in the first episode of Tyranny Rex, but felt it wrapped up too soon without really exploring them. The second Rex story may as well have been a completely different character. What was going on there?

As I recall I finally got on with Soft Bodies last time I read it. Its tangentally Tyranny but more about Fervant and Lobe (or whatever they were called) and fiction and movies and stories of stories... I need to read it again!

Thanks Alex, and thanks for the links Colin. Shame that it looks like there won't be a return to the themes of the first story. I always enjoy specific cultural references in 2000 AD, so there was a lot in the cloned pop star idea that really appealed and had completely disappeared in the second one. My loss!

I always enjoy specific cultural references in 2000 AD, so there was a lot in the cloned pop star idea that really appealed and had completely disappeared in the second one. My loss!

See, that was part of the problem for me, and why I'm not a fan of pop-culture references. Apart from Prince I didn't really know who any of the 'pop stars' were supposed to be, not to mention barely understanding the plot anyway.

Folk time and again trot out the old 'no good after Book 4' fallacy (sorry Colin!) but I found the Complete Nemesis volume II every bit as enjoyable as the first.

They do? Can't remember hearing it before now!

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Grand Dragon Mazarin, the freck heresy, Satanus, 'Grandfather' Nostradamus, Candida kicking arse, the madness of Sister Sturn, Torquemada the God and his past lives... it's all gold, baby. For me it's when Hicklenton takes over that the strip starts feeling less essential, and from David Roach's Book 8 onward it does have a bit of a feel of treading water.

To me it's all great up to the end of Book IX: Deathbringer - coincidentally up to where Titan collected them. Then it trod water until the 3-part recap Hammer of the Warlocks and went on a long pause again until we finally got the anti-climactic Book X. The Deadlock in Temight story was good, and I wish it could have continued like that - Judge Dredd: Mega-City One Nemesis the Warlock: Temight would have been a good series.

Prog 610. Deathbringer wasn't good for me, and it's the first time that Nemesis has really slipped. The main problem was the artwork - so many of the female characters were so difficult to tell apart when they appeared separately. The unusual, oblique script viewpoint decisions might have worked if I didn't spend so much time thinking 'who are you?' and so often getting it wrong. A gap in the run didn't help comprehensibility, and when it reappeared it was another round of trying to work out what was actually happening, which I don't think I managed before it ended. At least the confusion in Soft Bodies seemed to be deliberate!

Prog 662. As well as being distracted by real life, things have been going a bit slow because I found things a bit hard going of late. Rather than dwell on the tedium of the on-again-off-again Rogue Trooper, with The Hit so drawn out that the character appears in other stories inbetween episodes before being quietly resolved in a Winter Special (no, I don't know how it ends), or how post-Carlos Strontium Dog makes everyone look like their faces are drawn on badly lit turnips (no idea when this one will end either), I'll say that I've enjoyed Night Zero/Beyond Zero more than I expected to, that Medivac 318 was a worthy addition to the ranks of 2000AD war series, and lightweight Zippy Couriers was infinitely preferable to the tortured opaque simplicity of the perplexingly dry Moonrunners.

The advent of extra colour in Prog 650 has felt like a real breakthrough in readability, and I'm really enjoying another Supersurf run with Chopper. I knew the Dead Man's secret already, but was pleased by the eerie Summer Magic feel of the story. Zenith Phase III is not doing a great deal for me, which is dissapointing as the story as a whole isn't living up to the praise I'd read for it over the years, and I was hoping it would start to pay off soon. The Horned God feels so assured in its storytelling, and has such beautiful artwork.

It feels like there's been a bit of a lull, but I'm hoping the good feeling I'm getting from the last few Progs carries on once these thrills have run their course and are swapped for new ones. On with the 90s!